The Llama Ledger - Bard College at Simon's Rock's Student Newspaper

Issue date: 3/12/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Allegra Abramson Director of Security John Markland attempted to temporarily cover up the swastika by writing over it in red marker.

A swastika was found carved into the emergency panel in the elevator in the Livingston Hall Student Union, according to a global email Associate Dean of Student Affairs Bob Graves sent on Thursday, March 6, addressed to the Simon's Rock community.

Graves's email condemned the act and stated that, "as members of this community … we are offended by such cruel, cowardly, and disrespectful acts of intolerance." Graves apologized to any Jewish students, faculty or staff who may have felt personally offended.

On Friday, Faculty Senate Chair Maryann Tebben sent a global email on behalf of Faculty Senate in support of Grave's email, stating, "Simon's Rock has always been a place that values tolerance, respect, and open dialogue. We cannot allow attempts to intimidate or demean members of our community, and we must work together to create a safe space for all of us to live, work, and study."

There are so far no suspects, Director of Security John Markland said, but Security will continue to conduct an investigation. "Unfortunately, there are no leads. We're always looking and asking, and sometimes things pop up later on, so we're always—especially if another one comes up somewhere else—trying to put the pieces of the puzzle together."

Markland said a peer advocate on office duty brought the swastika to his and Graves's attention at 3 p.m. on March 5, and Markland promptly went to investigate it. Upon seeing it, he went to the Security Shack to get a camera. "As far as I'm concerned, it's vandalism, among other things, so I took a picture of it with our camera."

Markland said Graves then called the police and reported the incident as a hate crime, which Markland cited as indicative of how seriously the school takes this sort of vandalism. Local police came and collected the photographs.

Protocol for dealing with vandalism includes not only photography, but also interviews, investigations, and creating timelines, according to Markland. "I try to get some kind of starting point, but it can be very difficult," Markland said. "We try to study times. Sometimes we can take who enters the building at certain times or in certain areas and use that information, but it's difficult. We're not a forensic team."

After photographing the damage, Markland did his best to minimize the damage temporarily, he said. "I took a red marker and tried to cover it."

According to Graves's email, Physical Plant will order a replacement part to complete the repair, but, as the email states, "This may take several weeks."

Paying for vandalism repairs can be costly, Graves said, a burden which students and their families sometimes have to undertake. "The costs to repair and replace damaged property gets passed on to the consumer, and at Simon's Rock, that means to students and their families. Students should be outraged by hateful and hurtful acts in their community, as well as by the costs to repair that ultimately get passed on to them if no culprit is identified."

This vandalism is not only physically destructive, Markland said, but also has an impact on people emotionally. "It's a very sad thing. Not only is it a defacement of property, but it's insulting to people. I'm surprised people could be mean."

Student representative of Anti-Harassment Anti-Discrimination Committee and president of Race Task Force Gabe Salgado said he believes some of the vandalism displayed on campus stems from ignorance. "I think a lot of younger people, when they draw swastikas, do it mostly out of an ignorance of how powerful that symbol is."

Salgado, a native of Mexico, said people from his home country do not all necessarily understand the impact of the symbol. "Where I come from, people don't all really get what the swastika means. Coming from a slightly different background, people definitely understand it a lot less there than they do here, but even here, some people don't really get the full effect when they're using it."

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL), an interest group whose motto is "To stop the defamation of the Jewish people…to secure justice and treatment to all", does an annual audit, compiling anti-Semitic incidents in the US. According to the ADL's website, the swastika is the "symbol of choice for anti-Semites". The ADL cited it as "the Nazi symbol, one of the most powerful and enduring emblems of religious and ethnic hatred" and said that it was "present in hundreds of attacks against buildings, synagogues, cemeteries and private homes" this past year.

The website cited that Massachusetts is the state with the fifth highest occurrence of anti-Semitic vandalism. Of the seven states with the highest incident reports, 14 percent of those occurrences were school based. The website stated that "these incidents took the form of swastikas and hate graffiti painted or written on desks, walls and other school property, name-calling, slurs, mockery, bullying and assaults, with some directed at teachers, as well as at Jewish students."

The school can use these occurrences, Salgado said, to inform students of how hurtful their actions can be. "If someone truly understood how powerful that symbol was, or the effect that that symbol had on people, I don't think they would write it somewhere. I think it's important to take this as an opportunity to really engage in a discussion and make people understand that this symbol—and also other words and symbols—can be really be powerful to some people."

Tebben said she thinks the Community Meeting is a start, but in order to truly get their voices heard, students should be able to discuss their feelings about discrimination in a classroom environment.

"The faculty has discussed bringing these topics into the classroom," she said. "Students see each other the most in class. These acts that are probably thoughtless get hidden away, but we want to bring it out into the open and have people think about their actions."

In fall of 2004, an incident occurred in which someone drew swastikas in the bathroom of the large classroom building, which houses rooms 9-14. Tebben said after this incident took place, she was able to talk to some community members who felt affected by the graffiti. "That was a very educating experience for me, to hear from people who felt personally hurt," she said. "It's not just students who are affected, but also faculty and staff."

There was also an incident earlier this year when a PA discovered homophobic graffiti in Hill House, and a few weeks later an occurrence of homophobic graffiti found in a Kendrick House bathroom. Tebben and Emily Fisher Faculty Fellow Nancy Yanoshak wrote an email condemning these acts and in support of the administration then, too.

Part of the reason she and Yanoshak wrote the email is because they want to help students feel comfortable sharing their voices, Tebben said.

"Previously, with the homophobic graffiti, Nancy suggested we write a letter in support of the administration's global announcement [condemning it]. The faculty voted, said we should write a letter, and so we emailed it. This time, we emailed everyone, and agreed we should do it again, so Nancy and I wrote the letter on behalf of the faculty. By sending a letter, it gives people the space to say, 'I think this is wrong, too.' It isn't going to do anything tomorrow, and the downside is that it publicizes the act, which we don't want to do, but it can help people get their voices heard."

In terms of bringing discussion into the classroom, Tebben said she thinks Seminar courses are ideal. "You can debate, have conversations, discuss the effects of acts. Even in my Intro to French language class, we had a discussion about racism, so I think you can make it work many places."

Salgado said he supports the idea of discussing these topics in the classroom, but doesn't know if it will be enough to combat the problem on campus. "I support having this discussion anywhere. Bringing it into the classroom would be interesting. The classroom is a more respectful, more controlled environment, but how it would translate into the outside environment is my question. You have a respectful classroom environment people sit in every day, but then people are drawing swastikas in elevators."

Graves commented that he was grateful to the faculty for their quick response, and "for their willingness to address issues like this in their respective classrooms", and also said he was thankful to community leaders of organizations who were being asked to work with Community Council to "make space for us all to come together and hopefully develop and action plan, which ultimately will help make our campus a safer and more welcoming place for all."

Graves also said that, while this incident upset him, he is appreciative of the general response of the larger Simon's Rock community. "Whoever did this does not speak for the overwhelming majority of the people at Simon's Rock. The response I have heard from all corners of campus has been outstanding. Students, faculty and staff have all expressed outrage at this and other ignorant, cowardly, and hateful acts, and they have affirmed their support for a respectful and inclusive community."

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Contact the author: aabramson@llamaledger.com

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